Back to Taipei
Trip Start
May 13, 2007
1
4
8
Trip End
May 27, 2007
Taipei,
Taiwan
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Had a terrible night's sleep. Breakfast in the room then walked to the station for a 10:10 train to Taipei. I tried to take a shortcut but I got a bit lost. I then tried asking people for directions but I couldn't make myself understood. Then I got the idea to use the glossary in the back of my guidebook which had the word "railway station" written in Chinese. After that it was a piece of cake getting to the station as everybody here can read Chinese.
I arrived in Taipei at 13:00, bought a ticket for the High Speed Rail (HSR) train for my trip to Tainan tomorrow (from a vending machine as the line at the ticket window was very long). Actually this new HSR train is as new for most Taiwaners as it is for me as it hasn't been running for all that long. I had lunch in the city and then went "home" to the apartment of Professor Lee where I had stayed during my previous days in Taipei. Professor Lee let me keep the key so I didn't have to coordinate with anyone to get into the apartment. I just caught the metro and then the bus home.
I was so tired that I couldn't do anything else but take a nap, from which I awoke at 17:30. I called Professor Lee, who was at his home in the center of Taipei with his wife. He suggested that we meet in the city for dinner (on him!). During dinner, I bit into a dumpling that squirted its entire contents right onto the new watch I had just bought in Hualien a few days previous. Ah, the hardships of travel! We then returned home and ate durian (which Professor Lee and I both like very much) for dessert. At the same time, one of Professor Lee's tenants was leaving the apartment she had rented next door to mine and she sent her daughter to try to get back the deposit from Professor Lee. It was immediately apparent why the mother delegated this task to the daughter: She was one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life! I guess the mother figured that the daughter would be able to do a better job at getting the deposit back (for the broken lease). And she was right! What man could resist such a beauty? Well, neither Professor Lee nor I. After she left Professor Lee and I spent a few minutes telling pretty girl jokes (during which time we found similarities between Western and Chinese humor) before going to bed.
